Marielle flies over the ocean until she is taken captive by the ferocious She-pirates of Sizzling Sea

Story

Marielle felt a bump and jumped in her seat. She had fallen asleep in the golden bird. CRACK! The ship rocked back and forth in the ocean water. CRACK! She sat up in her seat and looked around. Outside it was still dark. CRACK! Something was hitting against her ship. Marielle stood up and looked through the glass window. Above she could see lights and something moving. She opened the glass window and smelled salt water and felt it splash on her face. Suddenly two enormous hooks splashed into the water and grabbed onto the side of her ship. Marielle felt it being lifted up out of the water and into the air. Then it was dropped down onto some kind of ship. She looked out the window and saw many people carrying torches/fire. Someone tapped on the window.

“Who’s in there!” the person growled.
Marielle stood up and opened the window. She saw the people now. They were all girls, about her same age. They wore various funny hats, big boots, ragged clothes, and carried swords. The tallest girl stepped forward. She had long black scraggly hair, a patch over one eye, and many missing teeth.
“Who are you?” the girl growled.
“My name is Marielle,” she said again.
“Why are you here?”
“I don’t know,” Marielle said. “I got into the golden bird ship and it brought me through the sky. Then the crystal stopped working and it dropped in the water.”
“Crystal!” the girl exclaimed. Then she crawled into the golden bird and found the purple crystal in the back. She held it up for all the other rowdy girls to see.

“Ooh! Ahh!” they said.
“It is our crystal now,” the girl said.
“But I need it,” Marielle said.
“It doesn’t matter if you want it or need it,” the girl said. “It is now ours--the property of the She-pirates.”
“She-pirates?”
“Arrh! You’ve never heard of the She-pirates? Why we’re the fiercest pirates of the Sizzling Sea! Everyone in the entire world is afraid of us!”
“But I thought pirates were boys?” Marielle asked.
“Not these pirates!” the girl growled holding up her small sword. “We’re she-pirates and more dangerous than any boy who ever sailed these seas!” She stepped back next to her pirate friends. “You mean you’ve never heard of the she-pirates?”
Marielle shook her head.
The pirate pointed at the girl with a shiny tooth, “You’ve never heard of Silvertooth, the fastest pirate to ever sail?”
Marielle shook her head.
“Or what about Fishbone,” one pirate held up her sword. “Or Lady Danger, Wildflower, Buckboot, Glitterhook, Firebraid...or the most famous pirate who has ever lived,” she pointed to herself “Miss Chevious!”
“I’ve never heard of any of you,” Marielle said.

Miss Chevious seemed very upset and gave Marielle an angry look. “Well, we’re obviously not doing our job if you’ve never heard of us!” Miss Chevious stomped back over to the golden bird and looked it over. “It looks as if this is made of gold. When we get back to port we can melt this thing down and live like kings.”
“Queens,” Fishbone whispered.
“Yes, queens!” Miss Chevious exclaimed raising her sword. The other she-pirates jumped for joy and raised their swords. “Now everyone girl your posts, it’s time to set sail!” The pirates scurried all about, climbing up masts and untying ropes until the sails came loose and caught the wind. Away the pirate ship sailed into the night. Marielle caught onto the sides of the ship and watched the black water pass below. She looked out and saw the bright moon, white as milk, reflecting down on the dark water. She wondered where they were going, how much further they were taking her from home.

“Land ahoy!” Wildflower the Pirate shouted from the top of the ship. Soon the pirate ship was near the shore and all of the she-pirates worked together to push the enormous anchor into the water. Marielle heard it hit the water with a splash and watched it sink down She looked out and could see the beach not very far away.

“Tomorrow we’ll set sail again and find more things to steal,” Miss Chevious said as she walked down the stairs with her same scraggly black hair, silly hat, eye patch and toothless frown. Her face was dirty like all the others and she wore tall black boots. The other pirates were now sitting around a table and pouring food into bowls.
“Come and eat!” Miss Chevious said waving an arm. Nervously, Marielle walked to their table and sat down. The she-pirate Fishbone poured something green and sticky into a bowl in front of her.
“What is this?” Marielle asked.
“My best recipe,” Fishbone said with a crooked smile. Marielle thought it looked funny but she was very hungry so took a bite. It was a little lumpy and strange tasting but surprisingly good. She took many more bites until eating the entire bowl.
“What’s in the recipe?” Marielle asked licking her lips. “It was very tasty.”
“It’s bug juice, snails and caterpillar toes.”
“Ew!” Marielle exclaimed. “How come it tastes so good.”
“Plenty of sea salt!” Fishbone said and the other pirates laughed along as they gobbled down their soup.
After the soup the she-pirates began to sing. Miss Chevious stood up on the table and led them in song, swinging back and forth, and back and forth.

We are the she-pirates of Sizzling Sea,
We go where we want we take what we need,
Our manners are bad and we’re never clean
We love to scare others and we’re always mean.

Yo ho, yo hum hee ho,
Yo ho, yo hum hee ho.

Our leader’s Miss Chevious she runs the whole show,
She leads us through danger above and below,
The famous of pirates you ever did meet
With she as our leader we always succeed.

Yo ho, yo hum hee ho,
Yo ho, yo hum hee ho.

We never say thank you, we never say please
We steal things from others, we lie and we cheat
All these bad manners keep us a float
As pirates we sail on our swift boat

Yo ho, yo hum hee ho,
Yo ho, yo hum hee ho.

By the time the song ended all of the pirates were laughing, climbing up the masts, swinging across the ship and pretending to sword fight. Marielle had to admit it looked like lots of fun. She wondered if she could ever be a pirate.
After the she-pirates settled down Miss Chevious with her eye patch, ratty hair and silly hat stomped up to Marielle. All of the other pirates gathered around her.
“Can you tie knots?” Miss Chevious asked.
“Yes,” Marielle said. “I’m very good at it.”
“Can you carry a sword?”
Glitterhook the pirate handed Marielle a sword. “I guess I can.”
“Can you sing?”
“Yes,” Marielle said.
“Arrrh! Well then you’re fit to be a pirate!” Miss Chevious exclaimed.

The other pirates lifted their swords in the air and threw up their hats. Miss Chevious took off her dusty pirate hat and dropped it on Marielle’s head. It did sound lots of fun--climbing up the mast, swinging around, singing, dancing and swimming every day. But she didn’t know about taking from others, stealing and all the bad manners the pirates sung about.
“I don’t know,” Marielle said. “I don’t think it’s nice to steal from others.” She remembered once when a boy stole from her pencil at school and it made her very sad.
“Of course it’s not nice!” Miss Chevious growled. “We’re pirates, we’re never nice!”
“And I have a family back home who is waiting for me.”
“A family!” Miss Chevious growled. “We are your family. And you don’t have a family anyway, you are lost like us.”
“I’m lost but I’m trying to find my way home,” Marielle said. She held up her hand with the words “I Love You” her father had written on it. “My mom and dad love me and are looking for me.”

Miss Chevious stomped her foot. “Well, if you won’t join us then you’ll walk the plank!”
The she-pirates gasped. Buckboot the Pirate nudged Miss Chevious and whispered, “but no one’s ever walked the plank!”
“Well, then instead you’ll be tickled for five straight days.”
“Five straight days!” The pirates gasped.
“I’ll give you until tomorrow to decide,” Miss Chevious growled taking her hat and sword back from Marielle. “But if you decide not to become a pirate then it’s tickle torture!”
Miss Chevious led Marielle to the inside of the boat where she and the other pirates slept. Marielle laid on the ground while the other pirates spread out on beds. Miss Chevious told Silvertooth the Pirate to wait outside the door.
“Don’t even think of escaping!” Miss Chevious said climbing into her bunk bead. “If you try Silvertooth is right outside the door and will tell us all.” Marielle laid her head down and closed her eyes.

But she didn’t go to sleep.
After a few minutes she quietly raised her head and looked around. All of the other she-pirates were fast asleep. She could hear Miss Chevious snoring loudly on the top bunk. She looked around the room and saw a pile of rope in the corner. Sneakily, she picked up the rope and slowly tied all of the pirates feet to their beds. When she climbed up next to Miss Chevious she saw that she was holding her purple crystal. Carefully, she picked it up out of her arms and then tied a knot around her ankle and to the bed. Marielle snuck back across the room and to the door. She put her mouth against it and in her best pirate voice yelled “Arrrh! Silvertooth, where are ye!” Silvertooth came running through the door and as she did Marielle snuck behind her and out the door.
“She’s gone!” Silvertooth the Pirate yelled.

Miss Chevious sat up in bed along with all the other she-pirates.

CRASH!
Marielle turned around to see the bunk bed falling over with Miss Chevious underneath. All the other beds crashed around the room as the pirates fell on their faces and tried to untie themselves. Marielle’s knots were holding tight and keeping them tied to their beds. On the deck of the ship she noticed her flying golden ship. She didn’t know how she’d get home without it. But by now Silvertooth was running toward her. Marielle ran to the front of the ship, took a deep breath and jumped over the edge. She fell down and down and down until plunging into the cold water. She came back up to the top and swam as fast as she could until reaching the sandy beach. She could hear the pirates back on the boat. Miss Chevious was yelling at the top of her lungs. “We will catch you! We will catch you!” But before they could get out of the ship Marielle had run far away and disappeared out of sight.